The revenue stream for a magazine comes from two principal
sources --- circulation and advertising. For most
magazines, neither source by itself is sufficient to sustain the operations of
the magazine. To have little or no advertising means that the cover price of the
magazine has to be raised higher, which would become a relative disadvantage
against competitors who carry more advertising and can therefore offer lower
cover prices. In some situations, a magazine
may actually be provided free to a controlled and qualified audience (such as information
technology managers) and rely totally on advertising.

Magazine advertising is premised upon the fact that
people actually read those advertisements and take actions as a
result. Yet, the reality is that not everyone reads the ads in the
magazines and not all magazines are read with equal attention for their
ads. The purpose of this article is to discuss the segmentation of
magazine ad readership.

We will now cite some data from the TGI Latina
study. This is a survey of 48,885 persons between the ages of 12 to 64
years old, who were interviewed in eight Latin American countries (Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela) during 2001.
During the survey process, the respondents were shown the statement: "I
enjoy reading ads in magazines." Among the 48,885 respondents, 13.3%
said that they completely agreed with the statement.

In the following chart, we show that the incidences separately
by age/sex groups. For any given age group, the incidences are
significantly higher form females over males. Within each sex, the highest
incidence is among the teenagers (12 to 19 year olds). For young people,
especially girls, magazines are windows to the world beyond their immediate
circle of family and friends. This is how they find out about what the
world does and thinks, through the magazine articles as well as
advertisements. In the book Decoding
Women's Magazines, Ellen McCracken wrote:

In his study of the historical origins of advertising in
England, Williams has analyzed the paradox that advertising in our materialist
society is in fact not materialist enough. The material object that
advertising tries to sell is never sufficient in itself: it must be validated,
often only in fantasy, by additional meanings which Williams term
"magic." Added to material commodities in order to sell them
is "a highly organized and professional system of magical
inducements and satisfactions" that have little if any material link to
the products themselves. In fact, it is precisely because consumer goods
often fail to satisfy many human needs and desires that advertising uses magic
to associate consumption with human desires: women's magazines for example,
promise that a shampoo will bring women male attention or that a dress will
assure success on the job, although neither product will satisfy these needs
in practice.

Ultimately, however, advertising does more than sell
products, according to Williams. Not surprisingly, the cultural patterns
of the system of magic begin to take root in a society, becoming a system of
communication in their own right. Williams notes that once the magic
pattern has been established, people respond to each other's "displayed
signals" which symbolize one's having made the correct purchases.
Consumers use commodities as a means of expression, a kind of language, and
eventually come to depend upon the system of fantasy.

For advertisers, magazines are therefore effective tools to
build up relationships with or cement the loyalty from these budding consumers.

In the next chart, we show the incidences by socio-economic
status and educational level. The incidences decrease with affluence and
educational level. This is perhaps a surprising finding. The
accepted wisdom is that magazines are read by the affluent (see, for example, Characteristics
of Magazine Readers). Yet this principal audience appears to be
the least appreciative of the magazine ads that are targeted towards them.
These data do not provide any conclusive explanations. On one hand, the affluent and
educated may have become inured to advertising because they have been
over-exposed to them. On the other hand, it may be their education that
has taught them not to take advertisements at their words.